Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan: First steps.
World's End Academy
- Thread starter tygerbright
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
[X] Plan: Bree Becomes an Actress
I want Bestiary 101. That is all.
I want Bestiary 101. That is all.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I'm sad none of the plans involve taking Verity 101 for the guest lecture, although I can understand why with the Backlogged penalty, and all the other things to work on. I hope we can take it next semester.
[X] Plan: Safe Adults
This plan seems most aligned to what I want to do. I do wish it had The Apprentice's Troupe instead The Order of the Unknown so we could make contact with Laurel.
[X] Plan: Safe Adults
This plan seems most aligned to what I want to do. I do wish it had The Apprentice's Troupe instead The Order of the Unknown so we could make contact with Laurel.
[X] Plan: First steps.
- Location
- Pittsburgh PA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Vote is closed
Turn three, part 1
- Location
- Pittsburgh PA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It has been weeks since you could just take time to truly rest, no need to learn something, no secrets you have to keep hidden, and no push to unravel the tangled web of other people's desires.
You set aside the time for some serious convalescence when Beatriz and Ada would both be out of the dorm for a while. Part of you wishes you could do the things you used to do back home, find some dry peat to burrow into and burn around you, or just minimizing your weight and letting the breeze drive you someplace new, but either would attract far too much attention. So you settle, a couple of coals taken from the kitchen and transforming back into your natural form.
It hits you that you haven't been in the form that you had spent your whole life up to coming to the academy in weeks. You feel like you are still you but at the same time, there is a doubt in the back of your mind that something fundamental has become different. As your embers begin to flare and sputter you remind yourself that this is supposed to be time for you to relax and your existential crisis can wait for later.
[Resilience check recovering from swamp fever
59+15=74
95+15=110
Break Points 60/90]
While you rest the worries of the world feel more distant and unable to reach you, and yet the time is fleeting. There are more things to learn and do than there are drops of water in the world.
[Identify Magic homework Studiousness Check 1d100+13 = Breakpoints: 50/65/80
92+13=105 ]
Something has been eating at you since the refutation class. The very idea of identifying magic just by looking at it, you could just rotely memorize every single spell but that feels utterly stupid and wasteful. There has to be something more to it.
You think back to your first magister class just in that class alone and for some spells so simple people learned them before even coming to the academy there was a wild variety in how intent and mana formed a spell. All spells are built upon a matrix but that is just in the caster's mind, so that can't be it. The act of casting the spell can be done from just about any combination of words, gestures, inscriptions, or focusing objects not to mention how different traditions interpret spells each in their own way.
You're missing something… or maybe you are overthinking it? A piece of magic is born from intent and mana, mana is what fuels the spell but intent is what shapes it. So if you can feel the intent of a spell from its shape while it is being cast then you know what it does.
[Skill Progress: Identify Magic, basic 3/3]
[Trait Gained Mana Insight
One of the many steps to truly understanding magic is to see how the basic building blocks are manipulated.]
[Safe Casting homework Studiousness Check 1d100+13 Breakpoints 30/50/70
Nat1+13= 14]
All it took was a smile at one of the boys living on the floor below you to borrow a book for a day, and even that was too much of a price to pay. The Necessity of Arcane Safety sounded like it would be useful for catching up on the Magical Safety class but no. It is more a collection of horror stories than any sort of instruction. It is filled with page after page of all the worst possible mistakes someone could make while casting a spell. The book's lurid descriptions range from all of a wizard's flesh slowly rotting to the bone after channeling too much necromatic energy, to every ounce of fat in a mage's body slowly being burnt away in a matter of moments, and the mad raving of a seer who tried to unravel with mind alone a foul curse that was far beyond you.
Morbid curiosity drives you to read the whole thing, and you experience new sensations with your new body like 'sympathetic nausea' and 'soul-deep chills' and 'definitely not learning any relevant information.'
[Researching Cervus Intuition Check 1d100+30 Breakpoints 25/50
62+30= 92]
Researching Cervus's business has two possible routes: asking around for what sort of reputation the Elf has and checking out the place that he said you could try out for a job. You don't really know anyone who could help with the former so you decide to just head out for the latter.
It is not at all hard to find The White Stag, which you initially mistake for a bar. A large sign featuring a deer with stars studding its antlers and a few arrows pointing in its direction is on the corner of the three blocks around it. Once you find the building itself, an exterior like a quaint, old-style house belies the strong scent of coffee, tea, and other stimulating hot drinks.
It's not hard to find, but it is a bit tricky to get -in-, the door seemingly sticking until the fifth time you try it. The interior is filled with mismatched furniture arranged seemingly at random, new seats are added whenever and wherever possible. At first, it seems underdecorated, but you quickly realize anything not made for optimizing comfort and occupancy has been stripped down. The tables are set so there are options for people who want to be seen and heard by as many people as possible but also places for those whole need was for a space for the most technical of discussions to go uninterrupted, all while catering to the varied preferences of humans, elves, dwarves, and the wide range of beastfolk.
When looking over the crowds, the first individual to catch your eye is a blue-haired Elf, oh, that's Dean Hana, and also another professor she's talking to, and there are another three over there crowed around a glowing diagram… While from another room you hear a shout of 'Do you even KNOW who I am?' that quickly ends in an explosion.
It looks like this is the coffeehouse where active researchers most like to hang out, and judging by at least a dozen or so students ignoring their expensive-looking pies to watch the table behind them, getting -paid- to listen in on the conversations here would be a dream come true for more than a few overachievers.
A tap on your shoulder draws your attention, and Cervus hands you something frothy and white with a smirk on his face.
So that's one pro and one con to working here, then.
Farsight
"Fel's tits you idiots are still here. Alright well, we've more or less confirmed that none of you will violently explode if you cast a farsight spell so I guess it's time to actually grind out some fundamentals. That means math. And that means I'm not grading these fucking things so if you feel like slacking off then by all means cheat yourself out of your fancy education." Professor Bungin grouses as she begins the lecture.
"One of the key tenets of practical farsight - the kind where you don't just throw mana at the problem until the phrase 'reply hazy' pops out - is that there are bits of the future just lying around right now in the present. Prediction can come from a thorough understanding of what is already known.
In fact, one of my contemporaries put forth the 'Three Pillars' classification, the statement that farsight as a discipline relies on three separate important concepts. Disconnected Sense, Information Processing, and Educated Prediction. In other words, the ability to gain information that you really shouldn't have access to, the ability to make magic do all the busywork involved in drawing conclusions from the information you have, and the ability to use that information to make reliable inferences about the future.
He wasn't right. I'd tell you WHICH contemporary it was so I can mock him properly, but another of his theories lost him his name. Just zhooop! sucked right out of time. And if I try to refer to him by an incorrect name it just comes out like"
Aya's lips flap but all you hear is a buzzing in your ears, with a slight ringing aftereffect.
"So absolutely do not take that seriously. HOWEVER, as a CONCEPT, it's useful for understanding what you can do. Since this is an intro class, you're all first years, and I am... disinclined to also run a class on 'mysticky bullshit for proper mindset' We'll just go ahead and run with it for now." She pauses for a moment to project a series of lines and triangles onto the class's wall.
"Which is really just me taking a long time to eat up my administration-mandated minimum lecture length because for the rest of the class, we're doing vector calculus. I'm going to demonstrate a few problems, and then you all can work on solving a whole bunch more as a collective. This may sound insane to the exactly two of you who know how hard that is, but nobody has to actually understand the math; you just have to understand ENOUGH of it to visualize your intent. In fact, it's actually a better demonstration of the benefits of the spell for the next couple of weeks if you don't fully understand what you're making it do."
"ACTUALLY learning the math is next year and I won't be there."
Soulsight is... interesting. No, wait, the opposite. You spend most of the week learning to meditate. And then learning to learn. And only then do you actually learn what the first actual spell you're -supposed- to cast is going to be.
A cantrip to tell you what you really want for dinner when you aren't sure what you're craving.
Clearly, your first-week results were somewhat atypical.
You're having trouble clearing your mind of the question of how 'soul magic' could be boring when you notice a familiar face sidle up to you. The thick red hair of fellow wannabe pyromancer Jackie coming into view out of the corner of your eye.
"Hey hon," she whispers to you, trying to strike up a conversation, "Do you know if it's true that the department is run by statues?"
Well, now you're definitely not meditating.
You respond with something to the effect of "what." and Jackie quietly elaborates on the rumors that the Soulsight department was founded by a statue.
You're not sure how much sense that makes, but you're saved from having another research task when she pulls out a book on the history of the school itself, where it states that Soulsight was the most recent discipline to be recognized as its own school of magic thanks to a feat of 'Grand Magic' performed by a member of the school itself.
Jackie outlines a long and winding conspiracy theory as a result, that the dean of the school looks like an ancient guardian statue because he IS one, and the mysterious soulsight masterwork is giving yourself a soul when you don't have one.
She then proceeds to go on about five tangents about the secret ulterior motives of the school, the ninth discipline of magic, and how the reason the teacher is SO BORING is that he's trying to imitate the dean by giving himself the metaphysical nature of stone.
Given his grey skin and inability to leave an impression, that last one might be correct, but you don't know about the rest.
Still, you hardly mind the conversation. The enthusiasm helps keep you focused... and the strangeness helps you empty your mind.
[Learning 'Body's Need' Studiousness Check 1d100+13 Breakpoints 40/70
71+13=84 ]
[Spell Learned Body's Need
School: Soul Sight
Cost: 1 mana
Cast Time: Instant
Translates subconscious needs and desires focused on food and other sustenance into a more understandable form.]
"Alright class, now that you've learned to do things the right way by banging your head against the proverbial brick wall, I'm going to show you a couple of other ways to do things and I want to hear your observations."
Professor Klaus wastes no time with introductions at the start of your next Magister class, instead wheeling out a cart of magicky looking [technical term] supplies and waving in some new students. Each of them is wearing shapeless black hooded robes that leave no aspect of their identity visible… except for some embroidered words on the hoods. You lean a little closer and read that it says 'Dress Code Violator'.
Huh.
"For the sake of comparison, I want each and every one of you to observe how a mid-level student casts a spell, and tell me what you can glean from that observation. But first, a round of introductions from our example stu-"
The students all immediately look back at him and start furiously gesturing in the negative, hands crossing and uncrossing in a quick X.
"Right! All the students are part of the Exemplar program, where you can volunteer for extra work in classes in exchange for spellcasting services from the teachers. It's a great program! You should read about it and not worry about who these specific people are literally at all! Anyway, I'd like them to each demonstrate for you one of the few spells universal across all casting rituals. Everybody, please watch."
The teacher steps back, and the students step up one by one.
The first to cast unfurls a scroll, reading carefully a long list of steps. He recites three lines in an esoteric language while doing… some kind of interpretive dance you don't recognize, and at the end a jet of clear water fires from his hand, filling up a pail on the cart.
The second pulls a trio of small glass beads off of the cart, positioning them around herself and closing her eyes for a few moments. She whispers something under her breath before pointing, and an identical jet of water shoots out.
The third pulls nothing off the cart at all. Instead, he assumes the same position as the second, practically yelling the words as he raises his hands and a jet of water fires off… while a spike of some kind of purple material grows through the skin of his hand and he hurriedly pulls out a file and begins to sand it down.
The fourth gets up on stage, casually points… and nothing happens. They try a few more times, engaging in what looks like clipped versions of the dance moves of the first, only to successfully shoot water only on their fourth attempt.
The teacher gives each of them an equal round of applause as they finish, including the fourth one. "Did any of you notice something specific while watching those casts? You can say it out loud if you're confident, but the important part is to notice."
[Insight check skipped, no way to fail]
About half the class looks lost, while the other half kind of nods, but you definitely noticed if nobody else did. Playing catchup earlier this week paid off sooner than you expected, and the observation and analysis portion is fresh in your mind. "The second and third ones didn't feel at all like the way we cast spells, while the first and fourth ones were familiar."
"Correct! In point of fact, the people I brought on to demonstrate were, in order, a Weaver, a Witch, a Warlock, and a Wilder. Those four are actually the only -fundamentally- different ways of casting magic."
"Respectively, a Weaver uses a rite that is entirely external; a Witch uses internal magic with an external catalyst, a Warlock uses external magic with an internal catalyst, and a Wilder uses a rite that is entirely internal. Because they're relationship-based, being a Witch or Warlock doesn't usually mesh well with other ways of casting. But the art of being a Magister is essentially that of using both internal and external rites simultaneously. In theory, a Wilder who performed the same actions as a Weaver when casting their spells would get the same results as a magister."
"In practice, it's significantly more complicated than that, but knowing the distinct ways rites work and how mana changes and operates with each of them is a key part of being able to understand your own magic. Now, I'm going to pass around the water samples, and we're going to analyze the lingering remnants of the spell effects inside them while we…"
You start to tune out the specifics.
The rest of the week is a lot of work, observing the path energy takes when spellcasting, the 'imprint' left behind inside spell effects when they're completed, and what people look like when they're casting a spell. At the end of it, you feel like you have a more holistic understanding of what magic feels and looks like.
And while the -results- are tough to argue with, and the Magister spells you've dissected seem much more, for lack of a better word, 'amorphous' than the completed spells of other methods…
Every time you remember how you saw the world move in time to the Weaver's words and motions. You can't shake the mental image that you're pursuing the elite skill of 'dancing like an idiot, but on the inside'.
[Learning: 88+12
Full success]
Mana Insight upgraded, can distinguish familiar Casting Types and Spells by sight.]
You set aside the time for some serious convalescence when Beatriz and Ada would both be out of the dorm for a while. Part of you wishes you could do the things you used to do back home, find some dry peat to burrow into and burn around you, or just minimizing your weight and letting the breeze drive you someplace new, but either would attract far too much attention. So you settle, a couple of coals taken from the kitchen and transforming back into your natural form.
It hits you that you haven't been in the form that you had spent your whole life up to coming to the academy in weeks. You feel like you are still you but at the same time, there is a doubt in the back of your mind that something fundamental has become different. As your embers begin to flare and sputter you remind yourself that this is supposed to be time for you to relax and your existential crisis can wait for later.
[Resilience check recovering from swamp fever
59+15=74
95+15=110
Break Points 60/90]
While you rest the worries of the world feel more distant and unable to reach you, and yet the time is fleeting. There are more things to learn and do than there are drops of water in the world.
[Identify Magic homework Studiousness Check 1d100+13 = Breakpoints: 50/65/80
92+13=105 ]
Something has been eating at you since the refutation class. The very idea of identifying magic just by looking at it, you could just rotely memorize every single spell but that feels utterly stupid and wasteful. There has to be something more to it.
You think back to your first magister class just in that class alone and for some spells so simple people learned them before even coming to the academy there was a wild variety in how intent and mana formed a spell. All spells are built upon a matrix but that is just in the caster's mind, so that can't be it. The act of casting the spell can be done from just about any combination of words, gestures, inscriptions, or focusing objects not to mention how different traditions interpret spells each in their own way.
You're missing something… or maybe you are overthinking it? A piece of magic is born from intent and mana, mana is what fuels the spell but intent is what shapes it. So if you can feel the intent of a spell from its shape while it is being cast then you know what it does.
[Skill Progress: Identify Magic, basic 3/3]
[Trait Gained Mana Insight
One of the many steps to truly understanding magic is to see how the basic building blocks are manipulated.]
[Safe Casting homework Studiousness Check 1d100+13 Breakpoints 30/50/70
Nat1+13= 14]
All it took was a smile at one of the boys living on the floor below you to borrow a book for a day, and even that was too much of a price to pay. The Necessity of Arcane Safety sounded like it would be useful for catching up on the Magical Safety class but no. It is more a collection of horror stories than any sort of instruction. It is filled with page after page of all the worst possible mistakes someone could make while casting a spell. The book's lurid descriptions range from all of a wizard's flesh slowly rotting to the bone after channeling too much necromatic energy, to every ounce of fat in a mage's body slowly being burnt away in a matter of moments, and the mad raving of a seer who tried to unravel with mind alone a foul curse that was far beyond you.
Morbid curiosity drives you to read the whole thing, and you experience new sensations with your new body like 'sympathetic nausea' and 'soul-deep chills' and 'definitely not learning any relevant information.'
[Researching Cervus Intuition Check 1d100+30 Breakpoints 25/50
62+30= 92]
Researching Cervus's business has two possible routes: asking around for what sort of reputation the Elf has and checking out the place that he said you could try out for a job. You don't really know anyone who could help with the former so you decide to just head out for the latter.
It is not at all hard to find The White Stag, which you initially mistake for a bar. A large sign featuring a deer with stars studding its antlers and a few arrows pointing in its direction is on the corner of the three blocks around it. Once you find the building itself, an exterior like a quaint, old-style house belies the strong scent of coffee, tea, and other stimulating hot drinks.
It's not hard to find, but it is a bit tricky to get -in-, the door seemingly sticking until the fifth time you try it. The interior is filled with mismatched furniture arranged seemingly at random, new seats are added whenever and wherever possible. At first, it seems underdecorated, but you quickly realize anything not made for optimizing comfort and occupancy has been stripped down. The tables are set so there are options for people who want to be seen and heard by as many people as possible but also places for those whole need was for a space for the most technical of discussions to go uninterrupted, all while catering to the varied preferences of humans, elves, dwarves, and the wide range of beastfolk.
When looking over the crowds, the first individual to catch your eye is a blue-haired Elf, oh, that's Dean Hana, and also another professor she's talking to, and there are another three over there crowed around a glowing diagram… While from another room you hear a shout of 'Do you even KNOW who I am?' that quickly ends in an explosion.
It looks like this is the coffeehouse where active researchers most like to hang out, and judging by at least a dozen or so students ignoring their expensive-looking pies to watch the table behind them, getting -paid- to listen in on the conversations here would be a dream come true for more than a few overachievers.
A tap on your shoulder draws your attention, and Cervus hands you something frothy and white with a smirk on his face.
So that's one pro and one con to working here, then.
Farsight
"Fel's tits you idiots are still here. Alright well, we've more or less confirmed that none of you will violently explode if you cast a farsight spell so I guess it's time to actually grind out some fundamentals. That means math. And that means I'm not grading these fucking things so if you feel like slacking off then by all means cheat yourself out of your fancy education." Professor Bungin grouses as she begins the lecture.
"One of the key tenets of practical farsight - the kind where you don't just throw mana at the problem until the phrase 'reply hazy' pops out - is that there are bits of the future just lying around right now in the present. Prediction can come from a thorough understanding of what is already known.
In fact, one of my contemporaries put forth the 'Three Pillars' classification, the statement that farsight as a discipline relies on three separate important concepts. Disconnected Sense, Information Processing, and Educated Prediction. In other words, the ability to gain information that you really shouldn't have access to, the ability to make magic do all the busywork involved in drawing conclusions from the information you have, and the ability to use that information to make reliable inferences about the future.
He wasn't right. I'd tell you WHICH contemporary it was so I can mock him properly, but another of his theories lost him his name. Just zhooop! sucked right out of time. And if I try to refer to him by an incorrect name it just comes out like"
Aya's lips flap but all you hear is a buzzing in your ears, with a slight ringing aftereffect.
"So absolutely do not take that seriously. HOWEVER, as a CONCEPT, it's useful for understanding what you can do. Since this is an intro class, you're all first years, and I am... disinclined to also run a class on 'mysticky bullshit for proper mindset' We'll just go ahead and run with it for now." She pauses for a moment to project a series of lines and triangles onto the class's wall.
"Which is really just me taking a long time to eat up my administration-mandated minimum lecture length because for the rest of the class, we're doing vector calculus. I'm going to demonstrate a few problems, and then you all can work on solving a whole bunch more as a collective. This may sound insane to the exactly two of you who know how hard that is, but nobody has to actually understand the math; you just have to understand ENOUGH of it to visualize your intent. In fact, it's actually a better demonstration of the benefits of the spell for the next couple of weeks if you don't fully understand what you're making it do."
"ACTUALLY learning the math is next year and I won't be there."
Soulsight is... interesting. No, wait, the opposite. You spend most of the week learning to meditate. And then learning to learn. And only then do you actually learn what the first actual spell you're -supposed- to cast is going to be.
A cantrip to tell you what you really want for dinner when you aren't sure what you're craving.
Clearly, your first-week results were somewhat atypical.
You're having trouble clearing your mind of the question of how 'soul magic' could be boring when you notice a familiar face sidle up to you. The thick red hair of fellow wannabe pyromancer Jackie coming into view out of the corner of your eye.
"Hey hon," she whispers to you, trying to strike up a conversation, "Do you know if it's true that the department is run by statues?"
Well, now you're definitely not meditating.
You respond with something to the effect of "what." and Jackie quietly elaborates on the rumors that the Soulsight department was founded by a statue.
You're not sure how much sense that makes, but you're saved from having another research task when she pulls out a book on the history of the school itself, where it states that Soulsight was the most recent discipline to be recognized as its own school of magic thanks to a feat of 'Grand Magic' performed by a member of the school itself.
Jackie outlines a long and winding conspiracy theory as a result, that the dean of the school looks like an ancient guardian statue because he IS one, and the mysterious soulsight masterwork is giving yourself a soul when you don't have one.
She then proceeds to go on about five tangents about the secret ulterior motives of the school, the ninth discipline of magic, and how the reason the teacher is SO BORING is that he's trying to imitate the dean by giving himself the metaphysical nature of stone.
Given his grey skin and inability to leave an impression, that last one might be correct, but you don't know about the rest.
Still, you hardly mind the conversation. The enthusiasm helps keep you focused... and the strangeness helps you empty your mind.
[Learning 'Body's Need' Studiousness Check 1d100+13 Breakpoints 40/70
71+13=84 ]
[Spell Learned Body's Need
School: Soul Sight
Cost: 1 mana
Cast Time: Instant
Translates subconscious needs and desires focused on food and other sustenance into a more understandable form.]
"Alright class, now that you've learned to do things the right way by banging your head against the proverbial brick wall, I'm going to show you a couple of other ways to do things and I want to hear your observations."
Professor Klaus wastes no time with introductions at the start of your next Magister class, instead wheeling out a cart of magicky looking [technical term] supplies and waving in some new students. Each of them is wearing shapeless black hooded robes that leave no aspect of their identity visible… except for some embroidered words on the hoods. You lean a little closer and read that it says 'Dress Code Violator'.
Huh.
"For the sake of comparison, I want each and every one of you to observe how a mid-level student casts a spell, and tell me what you can glean from that observation. But first, a round of introductions from our example stu-"
The students all immediately look back at him and start furiously gesturing in the negative, hands crossing and uncrossing in a quick X.
"Right! All the students are part of the Exemplar program, where you can volunteer for extra work in classes in exchange for spellcasting services from the teachers. It's a great program! You should read about it and not worry about who these specific people are literally at all! Anyway, I'd like them to each demonstrate for you one of the few spells universal across all casting rituals. Everybody, please watch."
The teacher steps back, and the students step up one by one.
The first to cast unfurls a scroll, reading carefully a long list of steps. He recites three lines in an esoteric language while doing… some kind of interpretive dance you don't recognize, and at the end a jet of clear water fires from his hand, filling up a pail on the cart.
The second pulls a trio of small glass beads off of the cart, positioning them around herself and closing her eyes for a few moments. She whispers something under her breath before pointing, and an identical jet of water shoots out.
The third pulls nothing off the cart at all. Instead, he assumes the same position as the second, practically yelling the words as he raises his hands and a jet of water fires off… while a spike of some kind of purple material grows through the skin of his hand and he hurriedly pulls out a file and begins to sand it down.
The fourth gets up on stage, casually points… and nothing happens. They try a few more times, engaging in what looks like clipped versions of the dance moves of the first, only to successfully shoot water only on their fourth attempt.
The teacher gives each of them an equal round of applause as they finish, including the fourth one. "Did any of you notice something specific while watching those casts? You can say it out loud if you're confident, but the important part is to notice."
[Insight check skipped, no way to fail]
About half the class looks lost, while the other half kind of nods, but you definitely noticed if nobody else did. Playing catchup earlier this week paid off sooner than you expected, and the observation and analysis portion is fresh in your mind. "The second and third ones didn't feel at all like the way we cast spells, while the first and fourth ones were familiar."
"Correct! In point of fact, the people I brought on to demonstrate were, in order, a Weaver, a Witch, a Warlock, and a Wilder. Those four are actually the only -fundamentally- different ways of casting magic."
"Respectively, a Weaver uses a rite that is entirely external; a Witch uses internal magic with an external catalyst, a Warlock uses external magic with an internal catalyst, and a Wilder uses a rite that is entirely internal. Because they're relationship-based, being a Witch or Warlock doesn't usually mesh well with other ways of casting. But the art of being a Magister is essentially that of using both internal and external rites simultaneously. In theory, a Wilder who performed the same actions as a Weaver when casting their spells would get the same results as a magister."
"In practice, it's significantly more complicated than that, but knowing the distinct ways rites work and how mana changes and operates with each of them is a key part of being able to understand your own magic. Now, I'm going to pass around the water samples, and we're going to analyze the lingering remnants of the spell effects inside them while we…"
You start to tune out the specifics.
The rest of the week is a lot of work, observing the path energy takes when spellcasting, the 'imprint' left behind inside spell effects when they're completed, and what people look like when they're casting a spell. At the end of it, you feel like you have a more holistic understanding of what magic feels and looks like.
And while the -results- are tough to argue with, and the Magister spells you've dissected seem much more, for lack of a better word, 'amorphous' than the completed spells of other methods…
Every time you remember how you saw the world move in time to the Weaver's words and motions. You can't shake the mental image that you're pursuing the elite skill of 'dancing like an idiot, but on the inside'.
[Learning: 88+12
Full success]
Mana Insight upgraded, can distinguish familiar Casting Types and Spells by sight.]
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
A: Good update, it is good for Macabre to know exactly how a human body is supposed to break down when casting goes wrong.
B: I want it to be noted for the future that Sufficient Velocity just had two entirely separate "Wisp Protagonist learns more about the intricacies of magic while hiding her true self" updates drop within 10 minutes of each other, which is an amazing coincidence.
B: I want it to be noted for the future that Sufficient Velocity just had two entirely separate "Wisp Protagonist learns more about the intricacies of magic while hiding her true self" updates drop within 10 minutes of each other, which is an amazing coincidence.
That's definitely more than one pro and one con, though some are subjective.
Eternal_0bserver
(Unverified Bookworm)
- Location
- Earth, Northern Europe
If it can work on others, it sounds like a great spell for taking care of exotic beasts, for example.
- Location
- parker colorado
Who's the second one?
Eternal_0bserver
(Unverified Bookworm)
- Location
- Earth, Northern Europe
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
It's Avaricious Monster by SingleCell.
Though to be clear, having a Wisp protagonist who has to hide what she is just about all these stories have in common. Different mechanics, different tone, different setting and while Macabre is a monster that has to pretend she's a human, Diya is an intelligent monster who has to pretend she's just a random monster.